Ah-ha Moments
Aren’t they great?
It took me a while, but I figured something out last night. The little lightbulb in my head went “DING!” as my thoughts were winding down before I fell asleep. Ready for the revelation?
Okay. Here it is.
I am not a seamstress!
And why is that so profound, you ask?
Well, because I’ve been hoarding fabric as thought I am.
Don’t get me wrong. I do sew, and I’m grateful (very, very grateful) that my mother took the time and effort to teach me how… but it’s a seasonal thing. I do Halloween costumes. Maybe an occassional “hey, let’s make the kids matching Christmas jammies.”
Then there was the quilt top I finished 2 months before my best friend’s baby girl was born — and then actually finished the quilt somewhere around the kid’s first birthday. Finished! Binding and all! It even got mailed, which is a BIG deal.
So although I enjoy it, sewing really is not a passion.
You get the idea.
I know enough to see potential in fabric (can we say “garage sales”?) and think, “Ooh! There could be a use for this, someday, probably!” I squirrel it home and shove it in with the other fabric, and then waste a lot of brain power wondering why our office/library/craft room is imploding. That room has such potential for being a useful room… but it currently looks like… well, I’ll spare you the description. Suffice it to say, company is kindly invited NOT to pass that doorway. Last week a little 6 year old friend got past my radar and quickly pronounced, “Wow! This room is a MESS!”
I agree. That’s why I went to sleep with a big smile on my face, realizing that I didn’t actually need all that shtuff.
Guess what I did today?
I gave my housework helper (the same one that helped me gut my house last year — she’s back again, yay!) 98% of my fabric stash. Yep. If there wasn’t extreme sentimental value, or if it wasn’t already slated for a specific I-really-want-to-do-this project, OUT IT WENT!
Mmmm, it feels lovely. So freeing. It was my best friend that started it, and we’ve both been cheerfully adding to our “I don’t” lists ever since. It really is amazing how declaring what you aren’t helps you see what you are. Would your life be blessed by similar declarations? Only you know the answer to that one. Just for the record, though, here’s my slowly growing list of “do and do nots.”
I don’t scrapbook and I’m not really a “sew-er.”
I do read and I write. How I love them both. I’m getting published someday. Really. Wendy and I have a race going on. I think she’s going to win, but since I tend to be a bit competitive, it helps that I think there’s a race. In fact, she may not even be aware of said race. Thankfull, she’s the kind of friend that would be okay with it.
I don’t make little handouts for lessons taught in church. Nope, not once in my year and a half as Relief Society teacher. Thankfully, the Church is still true.
I do try to get thank-you notes out, though probably half never get mailed.
I only rarely don’t make treats for the gals I visit teach. But, hey, I try to do my visit teaching. Getting better, slowly…
Speaking of teaching, I teach my children. (Yeah, like, everything they need to know, including school stuff. It’s way fun.)
I love my spouse. A LOT.
I am determined to have a clean house… in due process of time. That may very well be when the kids are grown and gone, but until then I’ll just keep plugging away. And you’ll keep hearing about it, sorry Blogland. I know it isn’t the most exciting of things, but it’s important to me, k?
Oh! And a new one! I garden. And I love it! Talk about a miracle. Here’s to newfound loves, like gardening…
And here’s to letting go and moving on.
Yes! I love our I Don’t list.
I don’t scrapbook. I am also not a seamstress. I don’t do old drama (that was a good one). I don’t keep up with the Jonses. I cook & bake from scratch- astonishing one I figured out from my omac day. I love our “I don’t” list. So freeing. Sounds great! My fabric stash could benefit from some of your vision or some sewing and I really do have some of that to do…soon. Like Yesterday soon. (Insert eye roll here.)
Oooooh, good idea! I’ve been getting rid of things lately, just trying to lessen the clutter around here. I don’t like clutter. At all. It’s funny, I’m trying to do so much that at the moment I don’t have a “I don’t” list. I need to make one.
Great post! Many of our “I don’ts” are the same. I don’t scrapbook either (even though I have a ton of supplies that would say otherwise, haha), I don’t sew and am definitely not a seamstress (other than cross-stitching, but I don’t think that counts), and I don’t really craft much in general. I would like to be a crafter, I really would, but I’ve realized that I would much rather pay someone $5 for a gorgeous flower clip for my girls’ hair than pay a whole lot more for all the supplies to make them myself when I know they wouldn’t look half as good anyway.
I also don’t can my own food, I don’t do genealogy, and I don’t make my own baby food from scratch. Gosh, my list of don’ts is kind of long, isn’t it?
Don’t let Karlyn read this post. She’ll make me get rid of my “wires, motors, and assorted bits of gutted VCRs” stash, on the ground that “I don’t”. I will… one day! Promise! So what if, by then, said stash covers the better part of a two-acre warehouse…
I don’t sew or do anything crafty except really amateurish scrapbooking. I definitely do write and love it. I cook, but I don’t bake (or make treats for my sisters either, but I might buy them some). I don’t make handouts for lessons (except Primary), but I do make lots of visual aids. Oh, and I don’t decorate the house all cute; even holidays are minimal.
All right, Smith. YOU’RE GOING DOWN!!!
On a less competitive note, I love the idea of an “I Don’t” list. I love that it’s OKAY not to do things. I will think on it and get back to you (unless getting back to you turns out to be something I don’t do, which, come to think of it, is very likely).
… and from the peels of laughter emminating from their cluttered office, one could hear her say, “I love you Wendy!”
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I love it! I need to write my own, “I don’t…” list but it would be so long!
Holy cow, it really would be!